About the Author

Dorothy Griffin (Author): Dorothy was born in 1921 in Poole, Dorset, the eldest of three children. She was beautiful, impulsive, courageous and amusing. Her accent was not a "Darzet" (Dorset) one, but that of a well-spoken English person. This she acquired at the age of 11, when a new girl arrived at her school, so she copied the accent. Dorothy "Squiffy" Griffin joined the war effort in the WAAF and her no-holds-barred diaries of her experiences during WWII demonstrate that in more modern times she would be described as a hell-raising socialite. Dorothy married and left for Brazil with a young and growing family. Dorothy returned to England at intervals from 1951 to 1977. Her husband Chris passed away in 1985 in Niteroi, Brazil. There followed a long gap of 17 years, when in 1994 she returned with Chris Junior for the celebration of her first-born twins' joint 50th birthday. Virginia Dickinson (Editor): Virginia was born in Poole, Dorset in 1944. The family moved to Brazil in 1946, where they lived on a cattle and plantation farm in the state of Minas Gerais. In 1960 the family moved to Niteroi, the city over the bay from Rio de Janeiro. In 1966 Virginia travelled on the R.M.S, "Arlanza" to England planning to stay with her maternal grandmother for a year. Cupid had other plans as she married and had a daughter and remained in England. Armed with her mother's war time diary, father's letters, and other family correspondence, Virginia felt the need for further research to find the family connection and draw to Brazil and this his has taken Virginia and her partner Raymond Slee to Austin, Texas, to The Lincoln Archives, The British National Archives, down a redundant (disused) gold mine in Minas Gerais, and The Anglo Ashanti Museum in Nova Lima, to name just a few locations exotic, and less so.